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NEW
DELHI: Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal who has just been named
to receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for lifetime contribution
to cinema, regretted that rural India had virtually disappeared
from cinema and television.
Taking part in a 'Meet the Masters' programme as part of the
ongoing PSBT Open Frame 2007 Festival, Benegal said the feature
films and television serials – particularly in Hindi
– appeared to have completely forgotten that a major
part of the people in the country live in its villages.
He
said most feature films were based or linked to Indians overseas,
and most series were about the upper middle class or the affluent
sections of society.
In
a meet for Dadasaheb Phalke awardees, both Benegal and renowned
filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan who are trustees on the PSBT
board answered questions put to them by managing trustee Rajiv
Mehrotra and by the audience at the Stein Auditorium of the
India Habitat Centre here.
Benegal said the films were clearly being made for the multiplex
audiences, forgetting the rest of the people in the country.
He regretted this trend but expressed confidence that the
situation would change soon. Gopalakrishnan said a similar
situation was beginning to develop even in regional cinema,
though not to this extent.
Answering
questions, both said documentary films need not be propagandistic
or publicity-oriented, and could be on a variety of interesting
subjects. The use of fiction in features should not be taboo,
but this should be made clear in the film.
Both said they took their own time to make their films because
they wanted to produce a product that satisfied their own
creative urges and hoped this would touch chords among the
audience.
Benegal said sharing one’s anguish with society was part
of the process of filmmaking and was not done merely to catch
eyeballs. Mehrotra added that it was possible to manifest
oneself without sensationalism.
Both filmmakers agreed that emerging technologies had come
as a boon, but Benegal said one had to be careful that ‘technology
does not start making use of you.’ He said that it was
difficult to make changes in the new technologies, though
the work had become much easier and faster.
Organised by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT)
in collaboration with Prasar Bharati, UNESCO, Max Mueller
Bhavan and INPUT, the Open Frame 2007 Festival being held
between 23 and 29 August is also featuring discussions, forums,
colloquiums, and workshops in addition to screening of films.
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